Public Diplomacy is On the March

What do you do when you find out that 80% of the reason why your neighbors hate you is because of the things you do - like fire bombing their homes and detaining their children without cause - and 20% of the reason why they hate you is because of gossip that they hear about you from others?  If you're Dear Leader, you run those numbers through your Harvard Business School-educated brain and figure you'll ignore the 80 and tackle the 20 - with an offical officer of propaganda public diplomacy.  According to NYT's Steven Weisman, who heroically avoids the word "propaganda" for the whole story, it looks like National Mommy and BushCo handler, Karen Hughes, is finally ready to make the bitter pill of US hegemony an easier swallow in her new stomping grounds, the Middle East.   Hughes' first Big Idea?  Rapid Response Teams:

The teams, to be set up in the Middle East and elsewhere, are one of several initiatives being prepared by Ms. Hughes, who took office this week as under secretary of public diplomacy. The initiatives are part of what Bush administration officials say will be an aggressive drive to repair America's poor image abroad, particularly in Muslim countries.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview this week that the units would "work to deal with misinformation and misinterpretation." During the war in Afghanistan, Ms. Rice said, the administration discovered that it had to rebut "all kinds of lies about what we were doing."

For instance, Ms. Rice said, the administration discovered that allegations of Koran desecration at the Guantánamo Bay detention center, particularly what turned out to be an unfounded report of a Koran being flushed down a toilet, were spread throughout the media in Muslim countries before the United States could respond.

...

Various independent reports on the problem of public diplomacy have said that most of America's image problems stem from American policies, like the detainees at Guantánamo Bay and support for Israel.

Ms. Rice, in the interview on Wednesday, said that in the future, more weight would be given to public diplomacy in the policy-making process but that this did not mean that the United States would shut down the Guantánamo Bay detention center.

"What I don't want to imply is that we're going to change policy because it's unpopular," Ms. Rice said. "It's a hard problem. Public diplomacy isn't going to help us with the fact that there's still some hard problems that we're going to have to deal with."

Oh, the lies.  If only we could have told  the truth and fast.   That's why Mommy Karen will be on guard and ready to throw some good ol' American propaganda PR at the next pile of shit to hit the Middle Eastern fan.  Maybe Ol' Man Rummy will finally just tell us that those remaining photos and videos from  Abu Ghraib aren't even going to see the light of day.   Certainly with a pro PR flak like Hughes in place, even images of torture can be spun away.  "First of all," said Mrs. Hughes, " it was abuse, not torture.  Secondly, abuse is an unpopular policy and a hard problem and so does not fall within the purview of the office of public diplomacy."  Crisis averted!

But Rapid Response Teams to tackle evasive non-denial denials and heavy duty distractions aren't the only trick in Mommy's bag.  She's also going to refit the Foreign Service:

In addition, State Department officials say, Ms. Hughes, a former television reporter, plans to lead an interagency "public diplomacy" operating group, including top public affairs officials at the Pentagon, and to change the way Foreign Service officers are evaluated for promotion, placing more emphasis on public relations skills.

Foreign Service Exam Revised Essay Section: (30 minutes)

List the five best ways to deal with a "media wolf."

The top 5 mistakes people make in bad news situations.

What do you say when you can't answer a question?

What to do if you suspect the reporter has an agenda and is out to get you?

List 4 things to do when you're practicing for a tough interview.

Talking Points don't propagate themselves.  Explain how that caution applies to the world of radio, television and the internet ("blogging" included).

Hair, Make-Up and Wardrobe: Oral defense (2 hours, bring your own supplies, changing rooms provided)

I hope someone keeps an eye on exactly what this office of propaganda is up to in the coming months.  Weisman focuses on the crisis management/self-defense angle because that's what he's been fed, but I'd like to know what else Hughes will be out there hawking.  Something tells me that the State Department isn't going to waste that shiny propaganda PR machine putting out 20% of the fires when it would be so easy to start a few of their own. 

Comments

[DavidByron]

That's a hell of a job. Think about how YOU would fix America's image abroad without any change to it's policies. I've got a couple of ideas.

I think basically the only way to do it would be to raise up some bogeymen that could be made to look even worse than the US. It's a shame actually because the Soviets and the whole fake Cold War was so good for that.

I dunno. Maybe get India to invade Pakistan? That would take people's minds off America. That whole Hindu-fascism thing.... don't they even use the (original symbolism) swastika? Yeah I could get that to work I think.